Business men say
that because everybody is selfish,
business must therefore be
based on selfishness. But
when business is based on
selfishness everybody is
busy becoming
more selfish.
And when everybody is busy
becoming more selfish,
we have classes and clashes.
Business cannot set its house
in order
because business men are
moved by selfish motives.
Business men create problems,
they do not solve them
When Civilization Decays
When the bank account
is the standard of values
the class on the top
sets the standard.
When the class on the top
cares only for money
it does not care
for culture.
When the class on the top
does not care
for culture,
nobody cares
for culture
And when nobody cares
for culture, civilization
decays. When class
distinction is not based
on the sense of noblesse oblige,
it becomes clothes distinction.
When class distinction has
become clothes distinction
everybody tries to put up a
front.
There isn't anything especially surprising in what Peter Maurin was saying and there isn't anything especially unsaid before but compare its radicalism with what passes as the common wisdom among the pseudo-left today. The left is unpopular because it has alienated so many of The People, because it has stopped being a real left. Just go on any comment thread on just about any secular "leftist" blog and observe how people talk about the working poor. As I've mentioned here before, one of the most succinct expressions of that was someone angrily asking if they were going to have to be polite to "fat stupid nascar fans". Of course the answer is, yes, if you want their support instead of their opposition. I think for a lot of people on the pseudo-left wearing polyester is a more absolute exclusion than being an advocate of modern slavery. Given the popularity of pornography and prostitution on the allegedly leftish sites, that is a certainty. You can't have a left that is anymore than just a variation on the right with that standard of value.
When I first went online and, in response to the non-stop promotion of banal pop-culture on allegedly leftish blogs, talked about other music and books, I was accused of being an elitist. But an elitist is someone who wants to use high art to enforce social class - in my experience most of the upper class association with high art was exactly for that purpose, though even something as damaging to the soul as being rich can't kill the genuine ability to be moved by art. The answer to that charge is that I'm such an elitist that I won't be satisfied until everyone is elite, able and free to love and experience any kind of art, able to distinguish art from commercial garbage that appeals to the lowest, most base aspects of human personality and culture. And, again, I've gone over Maurin's word count.
No comments:
Post a Comment